France Launched First Anti-ISIL Strike in Iraq

KABUL: (Middle East Press) French President Francois Hollande announced on Friday that his country carried out its first air strike against ISIL the terrorist group in Iraq, joining the US aerial campaign against the Takfiri group.

More than a decade after Paris particularly refused to back the assault of Iraq; France became the first nation to join the US aerial campaign in the war-torn country.

Hollande said “This morning at 9:40, our Rafale planes carried out a first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorist group Daesh (ISIL),”

The statement from his office said the target was in northeastern Iraq but did indicate exactly where, only adding: “The objective was hit and completely damaged.”

France, as well as Britain, had already sent aircraft into Iraq’s skies for surveillance missions but Friday’s strike was its first offensive operation against the Takfiri insurgents.

Several countries, including Iran and Russia have repeatedly warned against launching airstrikes on Iraq and Syria, saying that such move represents violation for the sovereignty of the states.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei earlier this week stressed that the posts of ISIL were crushed by the Iraqi army and not by the US and its allies, noting that Iran has rejected to join the international coalition against ISIL, which includes several countries that were and still supporting terrorism in Syria and Iraq.